Solved Win 8.1 backup/restore target disk problem

fanon

New Member
Messages
9
I have a strange phenomena which I cannot solve but perhaps someone here can help me out.
Some background:

Running on a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-U4TH with 16G memory and an Intel i7-3770 CPU with HD4000 video
Gigabyte UEFI Dual Bios Bootmode selection is set to Leagacy only (so the UEFI & Legacy mode is off andhas always been off)

I use hard disk cartridges which makes it very easy to swap sata disks. (no hot swap)
Have been using Win 7 Pro for along time with the extensive use of the backup & restore facility(WindowsImageBackup) to a second or third mounted hard disk in the same PC.

I migrated recently a dedicated Win7 hard disk to Win8.0 while still using WindowsImageBackup as before, and everything wasworking perfectly. Whole process done with Bootmode=Legacyonly

Last week I decided to install the win 8.1 preview build 9600 in preparation to the forthcoming launch so I could test it a bit. The installation went smooth. I did use a separate hard disk - so no upgrade from 8.0 to 8.1 My disks are MBR not GPT with again Bootmode=Legacy only

I know from this forum that in 8.1 the WindowsImageBackup facility is now well hidden but can still be used. So I wanted an image of my "new"W8.1 to a second hard disk in the PC - this exactly as I have been doing for avery long time in W7 & W8.

The problem:

Powered down my PC, inserted a second hard disk into it's cartridge, and powered it up again. Win 8.1 came up -> selected Filehistory -> system image backup -> started the process, but I got the message that no disk was found to place the image upon. Went to disk management as I suspected that no driveletter was allocated. To my surprise there was no other disk listed then disk C:

Went to the bios and found the second hard disk properly reported. I tried several other disks all with the same result, this just to make sure that the disk was okay. Also in my other PC (I have 2 similar PC's) all disks were working perfectly. (The 2nd system still runs on Win7.)

For clarity - none of this is happening in Win8.0 - there I can manipulate to my heart's content with images and hard disks - all under legacy mode with not a single problem what so ever.

When I change my bios to UEFI &Legacy - I do see the second hard disk, I can make an image, but when I want to restore it windows 8.1 gives me an error back saying in abbreviated form "cannot restore as system copy made on PC with BIOS while this PC is using EFI. I more or less expected to see this error.

I suspect that if I would regenerate a brand new system disk from scratch in UEFI (with GPT?) the problem might not exist - however that would imply that I have to reinstall all of my software on a new Win 7 copy, migrate to Win 8 (own upgr copy only) and then to Win 8.1 - for obvious reasons I am not very keen to do so.

Although I have 25yrs + of PC experience I fear that I may be overlooking something obvious
-- or is this a bug in win 8.1 as win 8.0 is okay?

I have searched this forum but found nothing similar to my problem.

I would be very grateful for some help & advice
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win8.0
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3770
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP4 TH
    Memory
    16G
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel 4000
    Browser
    IE9
    Antivirus
    McAfee
cannot restore as system copy made on PC with BIOS while this PC is using EFI

Hi fanon,

I can only tell you that I have seen this before and I believe that error reporting to be accurate. Now, I must admit that I didn't try to piece all your previous explanations together but I can confirm that error message is probably "spot on." Let me explain further:

When one creates a system image, it also is marked (somewhere) as either a Legacy or UEFI image. With that said, I can only assume that you made the original image while running a Legacy bios configuration and now you are trying to recover it to a system that has a bios, which is reporting an UEFI (EFI) configuration, to the recovery program.

Now, in rare circumstances, this can happen when you have a system installed as Legacy but your bios is still reporting as EFI. I know this to be factual because I had a heck of a time with my Lenovo laptop (and still do) because my bios is reporting EFI but all EFI options are locked down and the only way I can do an install is with a workaround Legacy. Not sure if you have a similar issue as this but you can read more here if you like:

Lenovo B575 Update to Windows 8 Issue - Lenovo Community

If you can confirm you have a similar issue, the workaround is to use Macrium Reflect Free to do your image backups and restorals because it doesn't do to EFI check like the inherent Win recovery program does. Again, I firmly believe you error message is reporting correcly so something is amiss there. Good luck.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel G2020
    Motherboard
    ASRock B75M-DGS R2.0
    Memory
    8GBs @ 1333 MHz
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 EVO
    PSU
    400w
    Internet Speed
    57/11
Hi,

Thank you very much for responding.
I understand what you are saying about the error message - as I stated in my post, I was more or less expecting to see this for the very reasons you explained. I am less concerned about this though.

My main concern however is - why is everything running perfect in Win 8.0 (in bios mode) and can all additional disks been seen & swapped & used as "target" disks if needed while in Win8.1 you loose them all together. Even windows disk manager gives a "blank" although the bios of the mobo properly reports additional disks. The only disk visible is C:

I am very puzzled about this - if you construct a system under legacy - all should be working perfectly cfr. my Win7 and Win8.0 rigs. Am I missing something here (am I a noob :confused: )?
Is this a major Win8.1bug?

thanks
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win8.0
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3770
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP4 TH
    Memory
    16G
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel 4000
    Browser
    IE9
    Antivirus
    McAfee
OOPs, sorry I missed your main target; however, when someone attempts to explain an issue in great detail (that's a good thing most times), I sometimes just skim it and try to extract the main concern; however, I missed that completely in your post so I apologize.

Now, what you are experiecing in not a bug in Windows 8.1. In fact, I am running Windows 8.1 (UEFI) and Windows 8.1 Preview (Legacy) and all my hard drives are correctly identified and accessible (external or otherwise). With that said, could you provide a screenshot of your Disk Management please and tell us the configuration of all drives that are not visible? For example, are they external drives that were purchased as such or are they old drives, with old OS's on them, that have been placed in an external enclosure for recovery purposes? This is definitely solvable.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel G2020
    Motherboard
    ASRock B75M-DGS R2.0
    Memory
    8GBs @ 1333 MHz
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 EVO
    PSU
    400w
    Internet Speed
    57/11
While waiting for your next response, I decided to check out your mobo information and I found this strange requirement listed under Win 8 x64 drivers:

ahci.jpg

FYI, the last time I saw this requirement was when I was attempting to install XP (pre SP3) on a Dell desktop (circa 2004) so I don't quite understand how that may apply in this day and age...
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel G2020
    Motherboard
    ASRock B75M-DGS R2.0
    Memory
    8GBs @ 1333 MHz
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 EVO
    PSU
    400w
    Internet Speed
    57/11
Hi my2cents

No problem - happens to me too once in a while :D

Really appreciate your help and time!!

I have never attached print screens ( no experience) to postings so I have to see how this works - in the meantime let me answer your question:

Disk manager only shows the C: drive (MBR) - so you don't see any other disks (like raw, unallocated etc.) while the mobo bios correctly reports them as available to the system

In order to make sure I wasn't messing around with GPT and MBR structures I made absolutely sure that I fed the right type of disks into the system using disk part to set the appropriate format. (MBR or GPT) or cleaned them if appropriate

The disks I am using are internal 5 1/4 inch WD SATA disks - so no external USB disk. I am using cartridges which allow me to attach or detach (or cold swap if you like) in a very simple way my disks (they are like trays in a NAS system)

ready for your next question :geek:
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win8.0
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3770
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP4 TH
    Memory
    16G
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel 4000
    Browser
    IE9
    Antivirus
    McAfee
re the special driver - point taken - But how about the fact that Win 8.0 runs like a charm ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win8.0
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3770
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP4 TH
    Memory
    16G
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel 4000
    Browser
    IE9
    Antivirus
    McAfee
I did not have to use that while staging win 8.0
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win8.0
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3770
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP4 TH
    Memory
    16G
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel 4000
    Browser
    IE9
    Antivirus
    McAfee
I quickly went to the Gigabyte site as well and for Win7 it suggests the same RAID/AHCI driver too.
However I initially created my systems ( 2 similar rigs) without the need of this. My drives are all set to AHCI
All Win7 is running perfectly for quite some time now - never a problem
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win8.0
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3770
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP4 TH
    Memory
    16G
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel 4000
    Browser
    IE9
    Antivirus
    McAfee
The disks I am using are internal 5 1/4 inch WD SATA disks - so no external USB disk. I am using cartridges which allow me to attach or detach (or cold swap if you like) in a very simple way my disks (they are like trays in a NAS system)

I wish you would have made that clear when you first posted. Since I don't know much about those disks, the only thing I can suggest is that you check to see if you have "hot swapping enabled" in your BIOS. And, I will now have to ammend my previous remark that it is not a Win 8.1 bug because it may well be (now that you have properly explained your configuration). So good luck and I hope you get your issue resolved. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that someone else has a similar setup and can continue to support you. Cheers!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel G2020
    Motherboard
    ASRock B75M-DGS R2.0
    Memory
    8GBs @ 1333 MHz
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 EVO
    PSU
    400w
    Internet Speed
    57/11
Perhaps I expressed myself not correctly - sorry for that - the system I am using is similar to opening your desktop and unscrewing or screwing your (new) hard disk in to the system - so it is nothing fancy. Hot swapping is not an option here nor is it desired. It is a very convenient way of changing or adding disks while the PC is powered off.

Have said that - just to try things - I am now in the process of installing win8.1 in UEFI mode ( and making all my disk GPT with disk part) to see if I have similar problems.

my2cents - thank you for your time though !!

Anybody else out there who can shine some light on my initial problem?

thanks
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win8.0
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3770
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP4 TH
    Memory
    16G
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel 4000
    Browser
    IE9
    Antivirus
    McAfee
I will close this post now although the problem is not solved at all.

Additional test I am currently running seem to indicate that my Win8.1 problem is in some form or another on both Legacy (MBR) and UEFI (GPT) systems.
When I have a clearer view on things I will start a new post.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win8.0
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3770
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP4 TH
    Memory
    16G
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel 4000
    Browser
    IE9
    Antivirus
    McAfee
I finally found the problem.

Apparently I had a AHCI driver behaving badly. (or not properly installed - although the C: disk was visible)

Thanks again to my2cents as you indirectly pointed me in the right direction.

case closed :geek:
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win8.0
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3770
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP4 TH
    Memory
    16G
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel 4000
    Browser
    IE9
    Antivirus
    McAfee
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